Welcome

Ahoy Matey, and Welcome to REPTIRE, an intermittent ‘ship’s blog’, chronicling the slow rise in the South Easterly skies of Reptire Designs; a studio that designs and crafts always artful, and sometimes useful THINGAMABOBS from old Indian Cucachou, aka ReTired Rubber.

Down Below, Ye shall find a permanent 'flagship post' marking the Maiden Voyage of Reptire Designs.

And below that, in the ‘hull’, can be found more recent posts chronicling the daring new adventures of Reptire Designs, dashed with small bits of whimsy, spotted pickerel, local color, and lizard lore..

In fact, on the right, in pale purple, ye shall find the Captain's Log’s Table of Previous Posts, which ye can peruse by year, month, and title to ye hearts content.

If ye haven't gotchyer sea legs yet, My Pretty, Ye can take a gander at our website at www.reptiredesigns.com, to get a proper Landlubber's Introduction.

Thanks for stopping in, I do hope you enjoy your visit aboard this ship! HARHARHARHAR.......

Sincerely, Travius Von Cohnifus

Captain, Founder, Indentured Servant, Rubber Alligator Wrestlor Extraordinaire a' this here ship.

enter the treadknot

Welcome
On September 26th, 2006, I launched my tire art/design business, Reptire Designs, with a solo exhibition of my artwork in The Green Gallery at The Scrap Exchange Center for Creative Reuse, in Durham, NC. For many reasons, it was a night that I will always remember, and I am grateful to Laxmi (my girlfriend at the time) and Edie (my mother, still) for dutifully documenting while I shmoozed, so that I may now shmare a taste of the evening with anyone who was not able to attend...



On a cool but lively autumn night-before-Center Fest, a stream of friends and curious strangers trickled (like pebbles through a rain stick) through the forest of odds and ends (that roost at night in The Scrap Exchange), out into the warm light of the back savanna, a scene utterly glopped with bizarre rubbery hybrids. Tentative and curious, the visitors craned their necks, nibbled, pecked, stood back, moved in closer. From the walls, glassy mirror eyes gazed back through black unblinking eyelids, while beneath the visitor's feet, in a steamy drainage cistern, a mortal drama unfolded. Primordial forms, with no eyes at all, sat puckered on stoops. A cascade of glittering steal droplets formed a curtain, to which clung a colony of tiny tire knotlettes.

Vito D., a long-time collabator down from the Asheville area, caressed the warming air with his Strange Little Folk music. I bobbed and I flit, and at an increasing clip-someone must have opened the faucet a bit....for soon I was swooning, I just about lost it! As the evening progressed, to my delight and amazement, 'family' from Durham, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro, Hillsboro, Siler City, Asheville, and Fresno all made it! From the Cohn Clan to the Steudel Clan to the CFS Clan; from the WWC Clan to the Duke Ac Pub Clan to the SAF Clan; from the Bike Shop Clan to the Ninth St. Clan to the Scrap Clan... and every one in between, guys, they were all appearing before my stunned, blinking eyes. While I spun and I splayed, Vito now played-CHURNED- up a torrent of gritty ditties; while a staff volunteer (Brandon's a photographer, I swear) whipped up pitchers of Mango Lassies. And The 'Scrap Exchange girls' worked the door, the counter, and the floor, going "cha-CHING!", cha-CHING!","cha-CHING!".!.



By the end of the night, hundreds of friends, acquaintances and had-been-strangers had poured in, poured over the work, and partaken in, what was for me and my art, a monumental communal feast. And on top of it all, I got to place many of my preemies in hands that I love and trust, and in several instances, hands that fit them like gloves. What a privilage to be able to connect with people this way. Heading into the turbid seas of small business, I can confidently say that if I drown tomorrow, I am at least blessed today with the memory of (as Vito later put it) one authentically good Durham night.



Thanks to all of you who were there; in body and/or spirit.





Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange

Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange
I can't think of anything more rewarding for an artist than to see someone interacting with their artwork. Photo by Laxmi Haynes

Sammy and Dannette contemplate

Sammy and Dannette contemplate
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Cascade Colony of Knotlets

Cascade Colony of Knotlets
They would go with your jacket, would they not Claire?

Laxmi Resplendent

Laxmi Resplendent

Mavis In The Mist

Mavis In The Mist
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Tire Amazement

Tire Amazement
Photograph by Edie Cohn

Thursday, June 14, 2012

REPTILE SPRING


            Wow, well, appearently birds aren’t the only things that move by clockwork (please see last post about studio wrens). Because this spring has seen their cousin reptiles crawling out of the woodwork, across highways left and right, and even falling out of the trees!

Digging around in the gardens at the Training Center, I found a wee baby snapper!
 
Nary can I drive to work, with out coming across at least one, if not two turtles trying to cross the road.

And while working at Leif Diamont's beautiful garden in the wood, Janice and Leif and I were strartled by a branchy crash. Low and behold, we saw a stunned blacksnake oozing woozy from his fall, from 20 feet up in a tree. I don't know how you knock a snake off a limb, but according to momma blue bird, there's not much to it!

There really does seem to be some strong bioligical mechanisms at work. For just the other day, I saw two freshly killed black snakes in the road. And of course a few years ago I had a 3-blacksnake day, beginning with a rescue at the library, then an encounter on my 2nd story front porch, which oozed into and through my studio, and then tragically, finding (presumably), the same lost snake dead on the road nearby.

          I have really developed an eye for spotting turtles especially. A few weeks ago, I pulled a grapefruit-sized snapper off of the road. And then just a few miles further, while rounding a curving country road, on the way to the Training Center, just a little speck caught my eye. That brown spot was not much bigger than a silver dollar (a tic on the road), but some sense in my brain was able to discern that little spot on the road was infact an exquisite little fingersandwhich of intelligent turtle.
SCREECH!!!!...(I don’t bother to turn around any more). I flicked him up, and sure enough, out he came, racing and clawing his way over the treadmill of my fleshy hands.
He is a real determined little bastard this one! He never stops trying to get on! I think I’ll call him “Huey”.
            Bill, the owner’s daughter Chelsea, who is very interested in nature, agreed to turtle sit for me, while I get my tank set up. They did a great job at creating a habitat for the little guy, and finding food that he likes. Eventually, maybe we will put him in the pond there at the training Center, since that seems like a moderately safe and natural habitat for him.

In the mean time, while the family is on vacation, little Horacio Alexander is staying with Uncle Travis in Siler City.


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